First Reading
Jeremiah 20:7-9

1. Jeremiah couldn’t ignore the call to prophecy even though it brought him much ridicule. Who today speaks out about injustice in human trafficking, police profiling, and the economy? What social or economic structures of injustice would you like to transform so much that you can’t keep quiet about it?

2. How does Pope Francis’ statement in his 2013 America Magazine interview relate to “it becomes like fire burning in my heart.” from today’s reading? Could racial, immigration, and environmental problems be some of the “wounds” to which he is referring?

Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that is able to step outside itself and go to those who do not attend Mass, to those who have quit or are indifferent. The ones who quit sometimes do it for reasons that, if properly understood and assessed, can lead to a return. But that takes audacity and courage. … We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound.

A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis
Sept. 30, 2013

Second Reading
Romans 12:1-2

1. How do you discern God’s will? Does certainty about the will of God come suddenly? Can it emerge gradually? Do you imagine you have made the decision and then check for feelings of consolation or desolation?
 
2. Do you think Christ will use your suffering for the salvation of the world if you unite your trials with his?

Gospel
Matthew 16:21-27

1. Which of these situations fit into Christ’s instruction, “Lose your life for my sake and find it”?

• Doctors and nurses treating people with the Covid virus;
• Dads and Moms making sacrifices for the good of the family;
• Priests, brothers and sisters generously serving others;
• Young people daring to follow their consciences, unafraid to go against the current;
• People renouncing their own interests to work with immigrants, elderly, disabled, trafficked?

2. You cannot take your money and possessions with you when you die. If you “lose your life” out of love for others, does that give you something to take with you? Is it the love in your heart that goes with you when you die?